EUGENE, Ore.—Action gets underway on Wednesday with the first evening of men's competition at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field. An elite group of six Villanova athletes descended on Eugene, Ore. this week for the national championships, which can be seen live on ESPN2 and ESPN+ from Wednesday through Saturday. The event schedule for the Wildcats features at least one event on all four days of competition.
 
Four members of the Villanova men's distance group qualified for the NCAA Championships, including fifth year collegian Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) and senior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) who are each repeat qualifiers for the national meet. Dolan will be running in his third straight NCAA Championships in the 800 meters, while Murphy returns to compete in the 1500 meters after qualifying for the final in his national debut last season. Dolan and Murphy each rank second on the Wildcats all-time performance list in their respective events.
 
Making their outdoor NCAA Championships debuts this year are sixth year collegian Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) and sophomore Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) who are qualifiers in the 1500 meters and the 5000 meters, respectively. O'Donovan has broken 3:40 in the 1500 meters twice already this season, including 3:39.99 in the national quarterfinal round at the NCAA East Preliminary to advance to Eugene, and has a lifetime best of 3:38.11 in the event which he recorded last summer in Belgium. Langon ranks fourth on Villanova's all-time collegiate season performance list in the 5000 meters with a PR of 13:28.44 in California earlier this year.
 
On the women's side, senior Roschell Clayton (Montego Bay, Jamaica) and junior Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) rank first and second in school history in their respective events. Clayton is the Wildcats record holder in the high jump with a mark of 1.88 meters achieved on two occasions earlier this year, while Sigfstead recorded the second-fastest time in Villanova history in the 10000 meters when she was clocked in 32:45.56 in her outdoor season opener in Raleigh, N.C. on March 29.
 
First up for the Wildcats on Wednesday is the national semifinal heats of the 1500 meters and the 800 meters. Murphy runs in the first heat of the 1500 meters and O'Donovan will be in the second heat, with the top five finishers in each section and the next two fastest times moving on to the national championship race on Friday night. Murphy's season and personal best time is 3:36.48 from earlier this year and his time of 3:38.30 at the NCAA East Preliminary ranks him as the top qualifier from either the East or West regions entering this week. The semifinal round of the 1500 meters takes place at 7:46 p.m. Eastern time (4:46 p.m. local time in Eugene) on Wednesday.
 
Dolan follows later on Wednesday evening with the semifinal round of the 800 meters starting at 9:14 p.m. Eastern time (6:14 p.m. Pacific). The top two finishers in each of three heats and the next three fastest times advance to the final, which Dolan qualified for two years ago when he tallied a fifth place finish in the championship race. He was most recently the national runner-up indoors earlier this year and is one of three competitors in his semifinal heat who owns a time below 1:46 this season.
 
Dolan won his seventh career BIG EAST title in the 800 meters and his fourth straight outdoor gold medal with a personal best time of 1:45.83 last month. It is the second-fastest time ever run by a Villanovan within the boundaries of the collegiate season. Later in the week, Langon runs in the national championship race of the 5000 meters on Friday night at 10:55 p.m. Eastern (7:55 p.m. Pacific). Langon ran the third-fastest 3000 meter race ever by a Villanova runner indoors and was part of the Wildcats 4xMile relay squad – along with Murphy and O'Donovan – which recorded the second-fastest time in world history earlier this year.
 
Women's competition at the NCAA Championships begins with Sigfstead running the 10K at 11:08 p.m. Eastern time (8:08 p.m. Pacific) on Thursday night. Sigfstead owns two of the five fastest Villanova times in the 10K, including her No. 2 mark earlier in the year and the No. 5 time of 33:05.99 which she ran in Kentucky two weeks ago to earn her NCAA Championships qualifier. Sigfstead is a former BIG EAST champion in the 10K and a versatile performer who was one spot away from qualifying for Eugene in both the 10000 meters and the 5000 meters.
 
Clayton has the longest wait for any of the six Wildcats competing this week, as the national championship in the high jump is slated for 5 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. Pacific) on Saturday afternoon. That competition can be seen on ESPN+ as Clayton bids for her third straight top-15 NCAA finish. The talented athlete made her NCAA Championships debut with a tie for 14^th place outdoors last season and moved up eight spots to tie for a sixth place finish indoors earlier this year.
 
The men's and women's track & field teams have combined for 241 All-America honors all-time at the outdoor NCAA Championships. The top eight finishers in each event this week will earn first team All-America accolades, with the ninth through 16^th place finishers earning second team All-America recognition and all others earning honorable mention status.